Automatic feeder for tube-presses



w. ERHARQ AUTOMATIC FEEDER FOR ,TUBE PBESSES.

. I APPLICATION FILED MAY 29, 1920- 1,369,921 Y Patented Mar. 1, 1921.

W/ M58858 INVENTOR w. ERHAR'D; AUTOMATIC FEEDER FOR TUBE PRESSES APPLICAUON FILED MAY 29, 1920. 1,369,921 Patented Mal-g1, 1921.

2 SHEETS SHEET 2- nvmvron w/mssm MAM/I4 flew/m ATTORNEYS WILLIAM ERHARD, OE JERSEY CITY, NEWJ'ERSEY.

AUTOMATIC FEEDER FOR -TUBE-PRESSES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 29, 1920. serieine. 385,127.

To all whom it may concern Be. itknown that I WILLIAM ERHARD, a citizen of the United tates, and resident of Jersey City, county of Hudsomand State of qew Jersey, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Automatic.

Feeders for Tube-Presses, of which. the following is a specification.

My inventionrelates tothat class of ma-. chines commonly knownas tube resses and whereby compressible, 'collapslble. tubes used, for instance, ascontainers for tooth. pastes, shaving creams and the llke are produced such tubes are. generally drawn from suitable metallic disks or plates of predetermined dimensions. The object of my. in-

vention is to provide a simple. andefhcient device whereby said disks or plates may be.

automatically fed-to the. machine in uninterrupted sequence and in amanner to pre-.

vent accidents to theoperators, to prolong the life of the dies, to increase the production of the press and to do away with. the. necessity for any special skill on the part The invention will be fully described hereinafter and the features of novelty will be pointed out in the apthe housing 24, thelatter in itsoperative positionflbeing i fastened upon thefchaiinel of. the operators.

pended claims.

Without intending to. define the limits of.

the invention, I will now'explain a satisfactory embodimentthereof with reference to the accompanying drawings. in which Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the feeder on the line.l.1 of Fig. 2; Fig. 2 is a plan view 5 is afaceview of thecover of the device;

Fig. G'is asimilarviewof the chute. or channel memberwhich forms part of the feeder and Fig. 7 is a detail cross-section thereof on the line 7.7 of Fig. 6.

As shown in the. illustrated example, the feeder comprises an upright support or stand 10 of suitable construction intowhich the supporting stem 11 extends as shown in Fig. 1, the stand being preferably provided with clamping 'means 12 of conventional form whereby said stem 11 is clamped against movement relatively to said stand The stem 11 in the form shown, is provided at its outer end with a. transverse member 13 on which. the chute'or channelmember 14: is. pivotally and adjustably mounted. by

her 114: and fixed in position. in any suitable manner as through themedium of a clamp screw or bolt 16. e e v t The channelmember 14L is formed with a Patented Mar. 1, 1921;

channel 17 which extends throughout the lengththel'eof. and preferably has-its inlet I endflaringioutwardly'as showmtheremainder of saidchannel being of; awidtheto slidably accommo'datev the metallic disks or plates 18 from which thetubes, are. drawn.

A cover. plate 1 9:is, preferably secured upon the member le-in registry withthe major portion of thechannel17 andmaybe prochannel 17.

lever 21, the one. member 22 ofiwhich lies within a recess23' of a housing24 andthe other member 25 of. which projects ex'te. I 'riorly'of said housing through a. slot'26I thereof and carries a projectionin the form of an ad uStabIe screW 2Z- fixed inplace, for.

instance, by means of a' lock nut 28.." The bell-crank lever '21 is pivotally mounted upon a headed'bolt29 which is'securedto.

member 14in surface, engagement withithe 30; a suitable aperture 31 is provided in the cover plate 19. for the; accommodation of the head of the bolt 29. as shown in Fig; 1. 7

Th member 22.01:? theibell crank lever .21 carries pins or lugs 32 and] 33' which de- V coverplate' 19 by means of screws or the like w e pend therefrom through slots3 ti1 the cover pla eilfi. nto the han el 17 21111. iar gis y' respectively with notches-3 5 and;- 36; inf thjef opposite sidewalls of the channel 1? thear rangement is such that when one pin or. lug

32 or. 33 lies within its coiiperating notch 35.

or36' and out of the channel the other-"pin or lug will project into the channel 17 in,

the pathof the disks or plates 18 therein and vice versa. The pins 32 and 33 are located on the member 22 out of registry with each. other, the pin 32 being adapted for projecf tion in front of the terminal disk 18 and. the

pin 33 being movable intoa position in front ofthe disklwhich immediately follows said terminal disk as shown in Fig. 2. A V spring37 having,its.. onej end secured to stud 38; fixed upon-the channel member 1 1i and its other end fastenedgto the 1 member off'tlie bellecrank lever2l. serves; to maintain its the adjustable screw 27 in contact with the member 39 carrying a cam 40 and constituting a part of the press, said member 39 being vertically reciprocable by means of suitable mechanism in the operation of the ress.

lVhen the feeder is operatively combined with the press, the base of the stand 10 is secured by means of bolts 41 to a suitable part 42 of said press in a position to locate the exit end of the channel member 14 in delivery relation to the die 43 which forms part of said press and which may be of any conventional type. It will be understood that said channel member 14 occupies an inclined position, for instance, as shown in Fig. l and sufficiently steep to cause the disks 18, when unrestrained to travel downwardly in the channel 17 by gravity; the channel member 14 is fixed in its adjusted position by the clamp screw 16.

In operation the metallic disks or plates 18. are fed into the inlet end of the channel 17 of the member 14 by an attendant and slide down said channel until the initial disk the tube press is actuated to perform its functions the member 39 will, at the proper time, be moved upwardly and by means of the cam 40 will exert a force on the adjustable screw 27 whereby the bell-crank lever 21 is pivotally operated against the tension of the spring 37.- The movementof said lever 21 is ina direction to swing its member 22 upwardly from the'position shown in Fig. 3 to the position shown inFig. 4 and thus to shift thepin 32 into the notch 35and out of the path of the terminal disk 18 which, being thereby released, drops by gravity from the channel 17 into the die 43 and is converted into a tube in the conventional manner. As the pin 32 is thus moved out of the channel 17 because of the described movement of the bell-crank member 22, the pin 33, for the same reason, is coincidentallyvmoved out of the notch 36. into the channel .17 and into the path of the disk 18 which immediately follows the discharged terminal disk. In this way all of the disks excepting the previously mentioned terminal disk are held against down ward movement in the channel 17 during the discharge of said terminal disk 18 as is clearly shown in Fig. 4. As the pin 33 moves from the'notch 36 into the channel 17 it will. contact with the terminal disk and by exerting a push thereon will start it on its way down the channel 17 and thus augment the action of gravity whereby the discharge of saidvterminal disk is facilitated and cloggingof the channel is prevented.

In the continued operation of the press the member 39 will describe a downward movement and by carrying the cam 40 along will permit the spring 37 to swing the bellcrank lever 21 in a return direction thus restoring the parts to the position shown in Fig. 3. During this return movement the bell-crank member 22 swings downwardly from the position shown in Fig. 4 to the po stopped by the pin 32. These operations are successively repeated and bring about an automatic and successive feeding of the disks 18 into the die or-dies 43 at the proper time. The action of the feeder is very positive and uniform and automatically insures a proper supply of individual disks to the press without any attention on the part of the attendant other than that requiredv to maintain a supply of disks in the channel 17; this introduction. of the disks into the said channel may obviously be also automatic in stead of manual if desired.

' The feeder may be readily combined with that the supply of disks or plates 18 be re-' plenished either periodically or continuously in order that the di'scharge of said disks into the dies may be constant and without interruption during the operation of the,

press. Furthermore, by doing away with the necessity for manually feeding the disks to the dies and thereby taking the operator away from the vicinity of the press mechanism the danger of injury to the workers is done away. with or at least greatly reduced; with the, use of the feeder the wear and tear upon the dies is also decreased whereby the life thereof is materially increased. Various changes in the specific form shown and described may be made within the scope of the claims without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim:

1. In a tube press, the combination of receivlng device into which individual metallic disks are lntroduced, a channeled 125 member vcontaining afseriesof said disks and having itsexit end in delivery relation to said receiving device, a lever pivotally mounted upon said channeled member,

means carried bysaid lever whereby the terminal disk'is released for delivery'to said receiving device and given impetus in the direction of delivery and whereby the next succeeding disk is held against move ment in said channeled member and means constituting a part of the press whereby the lever is actuated.

2. 1} feeder comprising a member having a channel extending lengthwise thereof and arranged to contain a series of disks, a pivoted bell crank lever having its one member extending in registry with said channel and its other member projecting transversely beyond the same, devices projecting from said one member and arranged to be alternately moved into and out of said channel whereby the terminal disk is released for discharge and the succeeding disks are positively' held against movement in said channel, the device whereby the latter is accom- 'plished, being arranged to impact against the terminal disk to impart an impetus thereto in the direction of delivery, and means engaging said other member for actuating said lever.

B. A feeder comprising a member having a channel extending lengthwise thereof and arranged to contain a series of disks, a lever pivotally mounted upon said member, a projection on said lever whereby said series of disks are held and the terminal disk is released for discharge, a second projection of said lever whereby the succeeding disks are held against movement in said channel during the discharge of the terminal disk and the latter is given an impetus in the my hand.

direction of delivery and means for'actuating said lever.

4. A feeder comprising a member having discharge and whereby the succeeding disks are held against movement in said channel during the discharge of said terminal disk.

5. A feeder comprising a support, a channeled member adjustably mounted thereon, and provided with notches at opposite sides of said channel, a cover plate on said member and over said channel, said cover plate having slots in registry with said notches, a recessed housing mounted upon said cover plate, a bell-crank lever pivotally mounted on said housing and having one member located in said recess and the other member extending exteriorly of said housing and pins carried by said first named anember of said bell-crank lever and projecting through said slots of the cover plate, said pins being arranged so that, when one pin extends into a notch, the other extends into said channel and-vice versa.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set WILLIAM ERHARD. 

